Hi, I'm Susan Elko from the Partnership for Systemic Change, a partnership among four schools districts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the Merck Institute for Science Education (MISE) located in Rahway, New Jersey. Our LSC is focused on grades K-8, but our greatest impact thus far has been in K-6. I was a middle school teacher for ten years and then a school district staff developer for another ten. Now I am the Manager of Professional Development for MISE. I am most interested in "lurking" (along with Scott Hays) in order to learn how other projects are working with middle school teachers to 1) acknowledge a need for change in middle school science curriculum and instruction, 2) connect the standards-based changes their colleagues in grades K-6 have made to middle school teaching and learning, 3) explore new middle school science curriculum materials and instructional practice, 4) critically analyze new materials and establish selection criteria that will promote coherence with elementary programs, and 5) identify their own professional development needs.
This summer we have a great opportunity to work with key teachers from middle schools throughout our Partnership during a four-day workshop. It's our first time offering this kind of workshop and the goals are pretty much what I stated above. Would love to hear ideas from all of you about how you would design and facilitate this workshop in addition to learning lots more global ideas related to middle school science. Susan
Susan Elko Merck Institute for Science Education
|
|